The Washington Post takes note of an interesting statistic. According to a recent poll three-quarters of Americans strongly favor or strongly oppose President Obama:
According to a new poll from National Public Radio, three-fourths of Americans feel either “strongly favorable†toward President Obama (37 percent) or “strongly unfavorable†(39 percent). And the rest of the men on the two major parties’ presidential tickets aren’t far behind, with 64 percent feeling strongly favorable or strongly unfavorable toward both Mitt Romney and Vice President Biden and 62 percent feeling strongly about Paul Ryan.
That mirrors what I’ve seen in the American political blogosphere. Increasingly, the conversation has been dominated by Left Bolsheviks on the one hand and Right Bolsheviks on the other. Neither side talks with the other and there’s only a tiny, embattled middle ground.
Meanwhile, I can only think of Plato’s observation that moderation is the singular quality most essential to a republic.
FWIW I drove by my early polling location today with intent to vote if the line was short. At 10:45 AM on a Wednesday morning the line was almost as long as it had been over the weekend, when it ridiculously long. I have a teleconference at 2 so I had to pass.
There was still a short line at 8:35 tonight. (The polls close at 8 pm, but presumably those already in line get to vote the same as on election day.) Turnout is probably going to be high. I only say probably because we’ve cut both the number of days and the number of locations for early voting.
Went to another polling station today, the Washington Park Branch Library. It’s in a predominantly black section of town. It’s been reported that they’ve had light turnout all week. There were only about 25 people in line when I got there, so in I went. It took less than 40 minutes to get in and out, and that was with a squirming two year-old terror and a pen that wasn’t working well. (Why did they go to bubble forms? The old complete the line forms were easier to deal with.) Based on what I saw there I have to believe it would have taken about four hours at the West Oaks Branch, which is what I’ve been reporting on above. One of the poll workers told me that the one on Alafaya Trail is the real nightmare, though. Yikes!
The head of the state Democratic Party is, of course, petitioning the governor for an extra day of early voting on Sunday. I doubt he’ll get it and he shouldn’t. These are the rules and they apply to everyone. Also, at this rate no one will be left to vote on Tuesday, so those that are left can just go then.
…
Based on what the poll worker told me and what I saw it would seem that blacks aren’t turning out as frequently as four years ago, but that is extremely anecdotal, even more so than the yard sign reports. We’ll just have to wait for the demographic reports to come back to know for certain, and even that can only be an approximation.
Coming home from our usual park I decided to take a different route home. Turns out I zigged when I should have zagged at some point. I got lost and ended up in Apopka. In fact, I ended up in a black section of town so I saw lots of Obama signs. But I was a bit taken aback by the one I saw for Obama in front of a funeral home! Yikes! That’s support I’d rather not have!
Or is this a Chicago thing? Are the dead going to rise from their graves and vote in Orange County? Hmmm.